Johnny Gaudreau helps Flames top Senators, end skid

OTTAWA -- The Calgary Flames opened the scoring for the first time in 10 games and ended a four-game losing streak with a 3-2 overtime win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.
Johnny Gaudreau scored with 30.2 seconds left in overtime to end an 11-game goal drought, finishing off a 2-on-0 with Mikael Backlund to give the Flames the win.
Micheal Ferland and Sean Monahan scored for Calgary (25-24-3), and Brian Elliott made 25 saves.

Gaudreau dove to knock the puck away from Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson at the Ottawa blue line. After Backlund picked it up, he passed the puck back and forth with Gaudreau twice before Gaudreau scored his 11th of the season.
WATCH: All Flames vs. Senators highlights
"It's hard to miss those empty nets," Gaudreau said. "It was a great play by [Backlund], and it was a big win for us.
"We dropped those two at the beginning of the road trip. Not the way we wanted to play. We came back and had a huge game tonight against a pretty skilled team there. A huge two points, and we have to get back on track after the [All-Star] break here."
Tommy Wingels scored in his first game for the Senators after being acquired in a trade from the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday. Chris Wideman also scored for Ottawa (26-15-6), and Mike Condon made 23 saves.

The Flames limited the Senators to six shots in the first period and took a 2-0 lead after coach
Glen Gulutzan ripped them following a 5-1 loss
to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
Ferland scored his sixth of the season on a rebound of his own shot to give Calgary a 1-0 lead at 9:39 of the second period.
Monahan made it 2-0 with 2:52 left in the second on a spectacular move, putting his stick back between his legs and flipping in a rebound of a Dougie Hamilton shot for his 16th goal.

Wingels scored his sixth goal to make it 2-1 at 2:01 of the third period, and Wideman tied it with a hard shot from the top of the left faceoff circle with 1:02 remaining and Condon pulled for the extra attacker.
Elliott made a couple of big saves in overtime on Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Mike Hoffman.
"We knew it wasn't going to come easy, and we wound up having to do it in overtime," Elliott said. "It's a big win for us, especially going into the break and having a little bit of positive energy. You can kind of take a deep breath and enjoy your families and enjoy a couple of days of just getting away from hockey for a little bit. Hopefully we can continue this trend of winning when we get back at it."
It was the last game for each team prior to the 2017 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend.

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Goal of the game

Monahan scored with a slick move. "Dougie made a good play and the puck was sitting there in front of the net," he said. "It was just the reaction. I was pretty surprised myself. I'm happy it went in. I didn't really think about it. It just kind of happened."

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Save of the game

Elliott stopped Hoffman's no-look backhand shot with a minute left in overtime.

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Highlight of the game

Gaudreau and Backlund put on a passing clinic on the winner in overtime.

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Unsung performance of the game

Calgary defenseman Deryk Engelland had a plus-1 rating, two hits and four blocked shots in 21:44, the third-highest time on ice for the Flames.

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They said it

"I had to ask him when he came in here, 'Did you go between your legs?' This is the NHL. That stuff's not allowed." -- Flames goaltender Brian Elliott on Sean Monahan's goal on a between-the-legs shot
"Rebound sitting there, I thought I was in good position, and he showed a lot of poise to drag it away from me and put it between his legs. You don't really expect that from a player. It's just a good poised play by him." -- Senators goalie Mike Condon on Sean Monahan's goal
"We weren't there the first two periods. We just weren't. That's probably our worst outing since [a 5-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 11]. Why? My opinion is I think we didn't fear them. We talked about them coming out hard. And being desperate to win. The last week, we played against opponents that are high in the standings, hockey machines that you could have fear against, and I think we lacked a bit of respect tonight, in terms of the fear factor." -- Senators coach Guy Boucher

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Need to know

With Hoffman back after missing a game with the flu and Wingels making his debut, Senators forward Chris Neil was a healthy scratch for the first time this season.

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What's next

Flames: Host the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; SN 360, SNW, SNP, FS-N, NHL.TV)
Senators: At the Florida Panthers on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; RDS2, TSN5, FS-F, NHL.TV)